Gov performance

The Federal Bureau of Investigation did not exhaust possible solutions to unlock an iPhone connected to a gunman involved in a late-2015 shooting spree before seeking a court order to compel Apple to help access the device, a US Justice Department internal watchdog said. The conclusion may pose challenges for the Trump Administration in possible future litigation to force companies to help crack into encrypted devices.

House Commerce Committee Ranking Member Frank Pallone (D-NJ) and Communications Subcommittee Ranking Member Mike Doyle (D-PA) wrote to the Federal Communications Commission's Republican members to register their serious concerns about those members appearance at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Feb. “Your willingness to attend and help promote a political rally raises serious concerns about your roles as leaders of an independent federal agency, and the potential of taxpayer dollars being spent towards political ends,” the Ranking Members wrote. They said they are look

[Commentary] In Feb 2018, the Federal Communications Commission released its most recent Broadband Deployment Report, which bases its analysis on 2016 data delivered by all Internet providers. At first glance, improvements in broadband coverage are noticeable; a national summary of the accompanying map indicates that over 95 percent of all Americans now have access to the official broadband threshold (25 Mbps downstream and 3 Mbps upstream). The intuitive “fixed” technologies (DSL, Cable, Fiber) made up over 95% of all 25/3 entries in the 2014 and 2015 records.

In a letter to Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee Chairman Rob Portman (R-OH), Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai said that there is little the FCC can do to prevent public comments filed under false names, or under stolen identities or to prevent mass bogus filings in what is meant to be an open, public, process.

On Nov 9, Rep Paul Tonko (D-NY) wrote to Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai expressing concern that, "the FCC is failing to bridge the digital divide because of faulty broadband data and inappropriately low baseline standards for rural service." 

The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and federal agencies have taken steps to improve the management of information technology (IT) acquisitions and operations through a series of initiatives, to include (1) data center consolidation, (2) implementation of incremental development practices, (3) approval of IT acquisitions, (4) implementation of key IT workforce practices, and (5) addressing aging legacy IT systems. As of March 2018, the agencies had fully implemented about 59 percent of the approximately 800 related recommendations that GAO made during fiscal years 2010 through 2015.

Citizens Against Government Waste has a bone to pick with President Donald Trump's infrastructure plan, which leaves the distribution of $50 billion in rural infrastructure seed money to the states and localities. In a letter to Office of Manqagement and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney, CAGW, joined by Americans for Tax Reform and others, said that while they generally support states spending money over the feds, they are worried about the potential for waste, fraud and abuse and duplication of spending given the focus on rural broadband.

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai has answered a question that broadcasters likely had on their mind. Unfortunately, the answer is "no." On March 6, Chairman Pai had "proposed to direct $954 million toward restoring and expanding communications networks in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands" in the aftermath of the 2017 hurricane season. The initiatives are dubbed the "Uniendo a Puerto Rico Fund" (Bringing Puerto Rico Together Fund) and "Connect USVI Fund Would Improve Connectivity for Residents "\

A bipartisan group of Senators, led by Sen Roger Wicker (R-MS) sent a letter to Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai expressing serious concerns about the agency’s recently released Mobility Fund Phase II (MF II) map. The purpose of this fund is to allocate $4.53 billion over the next 10 years to preserve and expand mobile coverage to rural areas.

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai says he wants to help poor people. “I have often said that my highest priority as chairman is closing the digital divide–the gap between those who have access to next-generation technologies and those who don’t,” he told a Senate committee in September when talking about reforms to a subsidy program called Lifeline. But critics say he’s doing the opposite, including with that very program. Unlike in the net neutrality debate, critics of Chairman Pai’s latest efforts are now coming from the left and the right.